The invention relates to a home appliance having a control field for selecting at least one program and at least one program option out of a plurality of program options. The invention also provides a method of operating the control field in response to user selections.
A variety of different control fields for home appliances are known in which the electronic layout and the method of operation for selecting a program and program options out of a plurality of program options is known.
For example EP 0 396 915 B2 proposes a control panel for a washing machine having a rotary switch for selecting a program and as a program option the temperature to be used in the respective program. Using press buttons, additional options for the program can be selected, for example the spin rotation speed, energy saving options or start time delays. The indicators for the selected options, the touch buttons, the rotary switch and the program symbols are non-unitarily distributed over a wide control panel field.
DE 101 44 668 A1 uses a rotary switch for selecting the program and the temperature as a program option. The rotary switch is surrounded by a first circle region of indicators and a second circle region of program and program option symbols. The indicators are used for animation to symbolize the rotation of a laundry drum.
US 2009/0217712 A1 similarly has a rotary switch surrounded by a first circle region of program option symbols and a second circle region of programs formed on a transparent disc. According to the number of program option symbols a number of LEDs is provided, wherein each one of the LEDs is dedicated to one program/program option combination. The indicator of the selected program/program option combination is highlighted to indicate to the user the selected program and program option.
In DE 198 34 229 B4 one rotary switch is used for program selection and several separately arranged program option rotary switches are used to select the respective program options. The selected program and the selected program options are displayed in a separate display fields.